R
THE METAMORPHIC JOURNEY
Noa Rinu George [ 8C ]
GLOBAL PUBLIC SCHOOL 2021
31 tiny glistening green spot caught my attention
A under the morning sun . Looking closely at the curry leaf bush in my backyard , I wondered , “ Could it possibly be an egg ??” I never imagined that I could ever witness the mesmerizing process of metamorphosis , right before my eyes , so elaborately described in my Science Textbook – The Life Cycle of a Butterfly- The Common Mormon ! Immediately I researched and found out more details about this wonderful species . Wow ! Who knew that the common plant seen in every single kitchen garden of us , Keralites could host such a beautiful being !
The Common Mormon is a swallowtail butterfly belonging to the Papilionidae family . The males and females look different and their wingspan is about 90-100 mm long . They commonly lay eggs on lemon or curry plants .
I moved the egg along with the twig to a closed transparent container and the days that followed were truly a magical experience for me as well as my elder sister and for my entire family !
In three days time , the bright green egg changed to a darker shade . We almost feared that it dried out , but on the fourth day , we could no longer see the egg ! It wasn ’ t anywhere to be seen . Frantically I called out to my sister and we found it ! A tiny creature , a few millimeters in size , wriggling away beneath the leaf !! What a sight it was !
Soon , it started eating the leaves that we had put in the container and it grew big , surprisingly fast ! We kept on giving it fresh leaves from the curry leaf plant and taking care of it with patience .
About one week later , it became a black caterpillar with white markings , about 1 cm in length . To our amazement , it kept on increasing in length and feeding on leaves rapidly , resting in between for long hours . One fine morning , there it was ! A beautiful green stout caterpillar , which blew our minds away ! The patterns on its body were strangely amazing !
I was speechless in wonder at the transformation . What a change it was ! It started eating a lot more , perhaps preparing itself for the final resting stage . Leaves after leaves disappeared . Stouter and stouter it became . We provided twigs to facilitate the cocoon formation and waited with excitement to witness more changes right before our eyes .